You make a good point. Michigan has fallen to this position, while Boalt has risen. For this year's purposes, however, calling the three public schools in the top ten a wash is a politically correct cop out.

Perhaps I am overestimating the extent to which the outcome is engineered; maybe the formula simply produces that outcome.

Examine 2002 when these same three schools and Penn were in an unwieldy four-way tie. I consider it PC that USNews, in order to avoid upsetting the school that happened to be a modicum shy of the others by placing it last amongst them, deems their proximity a defacto tie. Especially when you are discussing this tier of schools, finding grounds for differentiation should be a necessity.

My argument, as I say, rests upon the premise that you are going to employ rankings as a tool at all. If it's there for us to use, make it as precise as possible. If Boalt is 10th and Michigan is 8th, say so.

No debate is ever finished, but I do see the merit in admitting your own system's faults. I just want my $14.95 back if they're afraid to tell me whether they think I should go to Michigan or UVA (if they accept me).

I prefer a system that eliminates the tie. Breaking a really close tie may be MORE arbitrary, but if there is a justification, it's not meaningless. Give me the number along with the ranking. They're not all 78's. One is a 77.9, one is a 78.2, etc.

The reason they won't take us out to the next decimal place is that the Dean of 77.6 wants his "top public" tagline.

If I'm going to attend UPenn's 79 over UVA's 78, maybe I would attend Michigan's 78.4 over Boalt's 77.6.

I feel that in a system that is not truly scientific, there can be small numeric differences that are insignificant. They don't really represent superiority of one over the other. I would rather see these schools grouped together than have one purported to be better than the other.

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Michigan Law Class of 2010

i41m

I prefer a system that eliminates the tie. Breaking a really close tie may be MORE arbitrary, but if there is a justification, it's not meaningless. Give me the number along with the ranking. They're not all 78's. One is a 77.9, one is a 78.2, etc.

The reason they won't take us out to the next decimal place is that the Dean of 77.6 wants his "top public" tagline.

If I'm going to attend UPenn's 79 over UVA's 78, maybe I would attend Michigan's 78.4 over Boalt's 77.6.

The resolution of the rankings are already stretched beyond their limits (see Baylor's 7 slot jump by using a different method of reporting) but just because some rankings are differentiated to an absurd degree (penn vs uva) that doesn't justify making even more silly differentiations.